Due to advances in computing technology, businesses today are able to operate more efficiently when compared to substantially similar businesses only a few years ago. For example, networking enables employees of a company to communicate instantaneously by email, quickly transfer data files to disparate employees, manipulate data files, share data relevant to a project to reduce duplications in work product, etc. Furthermore, advancements in technology have enabled factory applications to become partially or completely automated. For instance, operations that once required workers to put themselves proximate to heavy machinery and other various hazardous conditions can now be completed at a safe distance therefrom.
Further, imperfections associated with human action have been minimized through employment of highly precise machines. Many of these factory devices supply data related to manufacturing to databases that are accessible by system/process/project managers on a factory floor. For instance, sensors and associated software can detect a number of instances that a particular machine has completed an operation given a defined amount of time. Further, data from sensors can be delivered to a processing unit relating to system alarms. Thus, a factory automation system can review collected data and automatically and/or semi-automatically schedule maintenance of a device, replacement of a device, drive actuators, respond to data in real-time, and other various procedures that relate to automating a process.
In conventional industrial environments, alarms are generated when a process variable lies outside a threshold range and/or when an operator undertakes a certain action (such as depressing an emergency stop push-button). Additionally, these alarms are often created within a higher-level system, such as a manufacturing execution system (MES), and not by devices on a factory floor. Thus, alarms can be associated with unnecessary delays and can be difficult to reconcile if they originate from different but related devices. Once the alarms are generated, they are delivered to pre-defined recipients in a “cookie-cutter” manner. Thus, each recipient receives an identical alarm. More particularly, an executive would receive an alarm identical to an alarm received by an operator.